Heinrich of Saxe-Weissenfels, Count of Barby - Early Life

Early Life

Heinrich, as the fourth son of his father, had little chance of inheriting any lands, and so his father, who served as administrator of the Diocese of Magdeburg, arranged for his appointment in 1674 as Provost of Magdeburg upon the death of the incumbent, his older brother August.

Heinrich's grandfather, the Elector Johann Georg I, who was also a feudal lord of the county of Barby, chose to make land provisions in his will for his three younger sons. He gave his second son August (Heinrich's father) not only the duchy of Saxe-Weissenfels, but guaranteed to him and his heirs the possession of the county of Barby in the event of the extinction of the count's line.

When August Ludwig, the last count of Barby-Mühlingen, died childless in 1659, some parts of the county were inherited, in accordance with Johann Georg I's will, by Heinrich's father August of Saxe-Weissenfels, who in consequence became count of Barby.

Read more about this topic:  Heinrich Of Saxe-Weissenfels, Count Of Barby

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    “Franklin said once in one of his inspired flights of malignity—
    Early to bed and early to rise
    Make a man healthy and wealth and wise.
    As if it were any object to a boy to be healthy and wealthy and wise on such terms.”
    —Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    “In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.”
    —John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)